Mercado Libre decision to accept Bitcoin is a major breakthrough, as it gives legal status to cryptocurrencies. There are more than 3,000 stores or brands within Libre’s ecosystem in the region. Brazilians can now pay in Bitcoin for the goods they purchase through Latin American e-commerce site Mercado Libre. The online retailer has partnered with Atlanta, Georgia-based payment services provider Bitpay to enable the service on its platform. Mercado’s decision to accept Bitcoin is a major…

When Mauricio Macri was elected in 2015 it seemed to herald a new era for Argentina. Now it looks like being more of the same. In August Buenos Aires announced that it would reprofile its debt. In effect it’s another default, with investors having to take a write down for having lent to the Argentine government for the fourth time in the last 30 years and the ninth time since independence from Spain. It’s a sad culmination to a presidency that began with such hope. When Macri came to power his early moves,…

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri knew that he had inherited a sick economy when he took office in 2015 but failed to put in place the medicine. As a result, the country now has no choice but to face up to a period of painful structural adjustment. Imagine a man who has lived too extravagantly and eventually must go to the doctor for treatment of an acute disease, along with several other chronic conditions. The doctor prescribes a ten-day course of antibiotics, and advises his patient to start taking…

Argentine primary winner, Alberto Fernandez is like the Russian mamushka doll, “you open it and out pops Cristina Fernandez, again you open it and out pops Lula, and again, Hugo Chavez”, said Brazilian foreign minister Ernesto Araújo. Money leaving Ezeiza after the shock election result Araújo joined president Jair Bolsonaro, and Finance minister Paulo Guedes is openly expressing their aversion to the current political situation in Argentina, and the possibility of a return to office of a ticket that…

Selling Exclusive or Unique Real Estate is a challenge in any market but none more so than in South America Advice for the new broker looking to get into the Luxury Property Market Ok, you’ve just taken your first million-dollar-plus listing. After celebrating your victory over the area’s top luxury agent, reality will no doubt begin to set in. If you don’t know the first thing about marketing high-end properties, you may wonder what you’ve gotten yourself into. You should be very worried…

Fear of a return of the authoritarian and highly corrupt previous Kirchner government provokes a market crash, forcing the president’s hand When Maurico Marci was elected president of Argentina in 2015, one of his first acts was to abolish capital controls that restricted buying and selling of the peso. The move symbolised Argentina’s pivot back to open markets and liberal economic reforms under his rule. On September 1st, after weeks of market turmoil, Mr Macri was forced to issue a decree reimposing controls…

The most common trees – Census 2017-2018 The vast majority of the trees are on the streets are on the public roads (85%), and the rest are distributed between parks, squares and gardens (15%). There is a huge variety of species: there are 423 among them shrubs, conifers, palm trees and other botanical varieties. Comparison with the previous census In the seven years between the two censuses, 6,887 new specimens have been planted and another 27,137 were replaced that were at risk of falling or were dead.…

The average price per square meter is around USD 2,330, close to a record. The owners prefer to delay selling rather than accept a lower price. This is not a new characteristic of the local market but reflects that few home owners have mortgagees so do not feel pressured to sell at what they see as a temporary pause. Whether this attitude will change with a likely change of government that has in the past put capital controls on the currency and wrecked the economy will remain to be seen but the high flow of…

A $21 million lawsuit filed in New York alleges that a sophisticated web of real estate brokers used Airbnb illegally to trick 75,000 unknowing guests. Is this just New York or is it worldwide? A $21 million lawsuit is accusing a web of real estate brokers of using Airbnb to illegally rent over 250 listings to nearly 76,000 unknowing guests. The lawsuit, filed in New York City on Jan. 14, accuses Metropolitan Property Group, a real estate brokerage firm, of using a litany of fake identities to rent out…

The development of a sustainable and modern metropolises that promote growth without neglecting the environment is one of today’s most important challenges. With small and large-scale recycling, environmental education programs, energy savings, the sustained increase in woodland and parked hectares, and the boost to bicycle use, the Government of Buenos Aires is working to make Buenos Aires a city every day cleaner and greener. Learn to recycle more and efficiently Thanks to the recycling programs already…

In July there was an improvement compared to June, but those numbers of real estate sales in the city of Buenos Aires does not reflect the 14 months of consecutive year-on-year decline, a historical cycle similar to what happened after the 2001 crisis, although still far from the exchange rate crisis, during the presidency of Cristina Kirchner, which caused 25 months of falling prices. Last July there were 3208 operations, according to the Colegio de Escribanos porteño, 18.7% more than in June, but a 27.6%…

The peso swoons after a presidential vote, showing the risk of an inflation tax The Argentine peso gained ground late last week after a three-day rout that followed President Mauricio Macri ’s crushing defeat in the Aug. 11 primary for a second term. But there’s no sugarcoating reality: The Argentine hunger for dollars has shot up alongside the risk of holding peso assets. At least part of the small recovery may have come about because on Thursday the central bank put a limit on the amount…

There’s a phrase in Spanish: por qué pintar es lindo, which means “why painting is beautiful”. Walking around Buenos Aires’ Palermo Soho district, with its abundance of murals, you’ll soon understand why this saying has been adopted by a group of local street artists. Around here, the street art differs from that found in most other parts of the city. You won’t find so many tags and bombs (which rival gangs or crews traditionally use to mark their territory) or political…

More and more of our South American vendors want to promote their properties using digital and social media tools along with local traditional media. To assist with this we are going to increase the number of marketing opportunities for their properties to appear in. This will be a substantial benefit for those with well presented and market priced properties but will mean some properties will have to be dropped if they fail to fit into this criteria or they will quickly become over exposed and unsalable. Real…

Argentina went to the polls on Sunday to choose the candidates in the presidential election to be held on October 27. However, there were no competing candidates as all the main parties only presented one option. President Mauricio Macri, who intends to run for a second term, was expecting to finish neck-and-neck with the Peronist opposition leader Alberto Fernández. He was not even close. Fernandez won the primary by a large margin (47 per cent to 32 per cent), enough to secure the presidency in October (45…